Well both Paul and Moses said that they would rather be personally damned in order for

others to be saved by a way of a trade.

So doesn't this imply that their vision of mission was higher in their priority list

than their personal and eternal joy in the presence of God?

In other words, didn't Paul and Moses prioritize mission over joy in God?

It's a great question.

And it comes from Josiah in Michigan, dear Pastor John.

When I first heard of Christian hedonism, I was put off.

I recognized that with God, the concept of altruism breaks down.

But I still considered it virtuous for the biblical examples of Moses and Paul.

Moses while trying to make atonement for the sins of the Israelites, the golden calf,

offers to God the option of blotting himself from the book of salvation rather than fully

punishing the people.

That's an Exodus 32 32.

When the Apostle Paul said he wished he were accursed and cut off from Christ for the

sake of my brothers, my kinsmen according to the flesh, the unbelieving Jews.

That in Romans 9-3.

As I work through your book Desiring God, I have become more fond of the theology, but

still don't see how it works with the above two passages which seem altruistic.

My question is, how could a Christian hedonist with a properly ordered mind accept eternal

separation from his greatest delight for the sake of achieving some other end?

Aren't Paul or Moses suggesting a personal end in which the salvation of the lost, not

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